Topical Tropes

These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.

The music played during Taizo Hori's character overview is super catchy as well.

The fanmade songs created specifically for Death Battle. These include "The Book of Ivy" and "Chemical Bath" both created by classic-black-and-green for Ivy vs Orchid and Luigi vs Tails, respectively.

There was also the use of a track from Sword Art Online during the climax of Deadpool Vs Deathstroke.

Broken Base: By the show's very nature, it's essentially impossible to definitively confirm which character would win in a fight. Therefore, at least some fans protest the results of most fights, much like in Deadliest Warrior.

Not too many fans were fond of Sektor being chosen over other Lin Kuei cyborgs. Even Boomstick agrees that Cyrax would have been a better choice.

Similarly, many comments on the videos leading up to the Ryu VS Scorpion fight claimed that Liu Kang, as a highly-skilled human martial artist, would have been a much better choice against Ryu. Ryu's unsurprising loss did nothing to dispel this.

The reasoning behind choosing Majin Buu as Kirby's opponent was discussed at Magfest 13. Ditto was originally going to be Kirby's opponent, but this was scrapped after they couldn't find a way to make the actual fight compelling, and when further research uncovered just how powerful Kirby in his base form was compared to most other Power Copying fighters.

Deadpool's fourth-wall humor in the Deathstroke vs Deadpool episode. Either you thought it was hilarious and top-notch, or it was obnoxious, tried too hard and came off as 'lol randumb.' Of course, this is an element that breaks the entire Deadpool base and isn't exclusive to his appearance in Death Battle.

The use of amalgamation characters in Death Battle can be seen as giving some fighters an unfair advantage, since it can sometimes cause one combatant to appear much more powerful than who they're fighting (such as Link, who was explained as having the fighting experience of all Links as well as the best defensive items from across every Zelda game), or give them abilities that have suspect canonicity (Such as Peach having moves from her sports games, which have always been considered non-canon to the Mario franchise).

Ragna the Bloodedge vs. Sol Badguy is getting this as well. While some accept the result, others are pointing out that Wiz and Boomstick got a lot of information wrong (particularly on the Blazblue side) and that the match should have ended the other way around. On the other hand, there are just as many people on a middle ground agreeing with the result yet also agreeing that numerous research errors were made, particularly from their Running Gag of the episode, "nobody knows!" towards the Blazblue storylines despite what many Blazblue fans easily answered in the comments and such.

Also in regards to the Ragna vs. Sol Death Battle, the fact the battle was originally removed from YouTube due to ScrewAttack using a piece of fan art from artist "Na-Insoo" without his permission. While a good part of the fanbase thinks Na-Insoo is in the wrong since the show at least didn't hide his signature or the fact the work was his (and not their own), others stand behind Na-Insoo in that artists too often are taken advantage of in the industry, and he has a right to defend the copyright of his own hard work. However this has been skewed when it was clarified that Na-Insoo was asked for permission to use his fanart and was in fact credited at the end of the video. The reason why Na-Insoo still filed a claim? He didn't get credited in the ways that he wanted to.

Toph vs. Gaara is getting a very similar reaction as Ragna vs. Sol. Some people readily accept the results as is, while many others contend that Wiz and Boomstick again blotched the research (especially on the Naruto side of things) and thus think the battle should have ended the other way. There is a middle ground as well, but in general, it seems to be smaller than the first two sides.

The reveal of a "remastered" Boba Fett vs. Samus Aran fight split the base in half. One half is perfectly fine with the very first episode, which has not held up very well (especially in regards to episodes released in the season that the remake came out in), getting a total 3D overhaul worthy of its combatants, while the other half takes issue with the idea of spending production time on a remake that would otherwise have been spent on an entirely new fight.

Goku vs Superman. Oh dear sweet mother of God, that episode has produced more fan outcry than any other video they've ever made, to the point where they made an entirely separate video just to further justify the logic behind having Superman win the fight. Which has never been done again, neither before or to this date after the video. Oh, and all the while saying how much they preferred Goku over Superman as a character. To this day, you can still find people complaining about that video if you go to fan websites of either series. Unpleasable Fanbase indeed...

Consolation Award: Some fans have accused the Batman vs Captain American fight as nothing more than an attempt to appease Batman fans who were still upset over his loss to Spider-Man. This is not true however, as many small emergency episodes were planned years ago in case something happened to screw up the schedule, which is what happened regarding Ben's hard drive during Godzilla vs. Gamera, and having to rebuild Tigerzord vs. Epyon from scratch.

Any time a character who lost in Death Battle returns for One Minute Melee and wins will inevitably be bombarded with these accusations in the comments. Deathstroke defeating Deadpool in One Minute Melee after losing to him in Death Battle is the most notable example, with Ragna's win against Dante after losing in Death Battle come a close second.

Crazy Awesome: Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro is an exercise in insanity and one of the most loved Death Battles. When you watch stuff like Chuck punching Segata with the third fist underneath his beard, Segata performing his exploding judo-toss on Chuck into a mountain that also explodes, and Chuck splitting the world in half by launching a giant clone of Segata through it, you watch it again because it's awesome and possibly because your mind couldn't really grasp what was going on the first time around.

Wonder Woman is inexplicably deprived of her Hephaestus-made sword and shield in her fight with Rogue, despite both being almost as iconic as her lasso. She also has some alternate uniforms that expose less skin.

In the Harry Potter versus Luke Skywalker fight, they have Luke block Expelliarmus with his lightsaber. The disarming charm cannot be blocked with a weapon, because that's one of the two things the spell is supposed to be aimed at. At the very least it should have shown him afterwards visibly struggling to keep a hold of his weapon. Furthermore, scars that have healed are not significantly weaker than other areas of skin, and it should not have been exploitable through shatterpoint.

"Kunoichi" is a term for female ninja, not Distracted by the Sexy, but this is understandable since the latter was a major tactic employed by the former.

The "Silver Sonic" shown in Eggman vs Wily is actually dubbed Mecha Sonic, and is not the same as the official Silver Sonic◊ from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Game Gear). Granted, this is incredibly obscure, a "distinction" made when the Sonic Canon was still fast and loose, and Mecha Sonic's lack of a Chaos Emerald likely wouldn't affect the outcome.

In Vegeta vs Shadow, they say that the Super Saiyan increases Vegeta's power by 500 percent, meaning a 5x times increases. However, it actually raises his power by 50x times, meaning a 5000 percent increase.

Part of why Godzilla beats Gamera is because his atomic breath is 'pure radiation' (they probably meant gamma rays, considering Godzilla's allegorical origins) and not anything Gamera can absorb. This isn't true. The few times in the series it's been directly stated what it is, it's normally said to be nuclear plasma, something Gamera COULD absorb.

Thor's hammer doesn't actually weigh millions of tons; according to Marvel Canon, it weights a little over 40lbs. It isn't crafted from the material of a dying star; rather, it is made of a magic metal called "uru", and the dying star was used as the forge it was created in. The reason it can't be lifted is due to magical enchantments on it, not the hammer's actual weight.

Similarly, while Pikachu does usually rely on Ash's commands during a fight, it has demonstrated a degree of independence and intelligence on its own, a famous example being when it used its tail as a platform to dodge a massive Thunderbolt during its second fight with Surge's Raichu.

While it causes no impact on the battle whatsoever, Noin is depicted flying a Vayate at the beginning of Tigerzord vs Epyon. A mobile suit she never used in canon. This could be explained as Gundam Wing Endless Duel never had her canonical Mobile Suit, the Taurus, and making a sprite for the brief scene would be pointless.

When Buu split up in Kirby's stomach, it should have resulted in Evil Buu (as in canon, who then would have absorbed Fat Buu to create super buu) instead of Kid Buu. Also, counts as They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot because Super Buu has shown himself to be the smartest of the various Buus. Though this is perhaps justified through time constraints- they likely couldn't afford to have Kirby fight every incarnation of Buu in a single video given how much time Fat Buu and Kid Buu took up.

During Toph vs. Gaara, Wiz reasons that Toph could metalbend the gold dust in Gaara's sand because it has traces of copper and iron in it. That notion is incorrect. In the Avatar franchise, earthbenders metalbend by bending the impurities inside the metal, not the metal itself. As shown in the Legend of Korra, pure metals like platinum, gold, iron, and copper cannot be bent. If anything, the gold dust should have made it harder for Toph to counterbend Gaara's sand.

A minor one, but Boomstick mentions Segata Sanshiro's appearance in Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog, stating that Mobius is Earth 3000 years into the future. Not only is the time wrong (it's more like 10,000+), it's non-canon — the events of Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide removed a number of plot points from the Ken Penders/Karl Bollers era and that was one of them.

Hatedom: Affectionately mocked. Fans of anime are noticing the crummy track record of anime characters, and as of the conclusion of Gaara vs Toph Boomstick is (pretending to be) sympathizing with them.

Death Battle previews for the He-Man and Lion-O fight seemed to imply that Lion-O's ability to control cats would be used on Battle Cat, which had some fans complaining that Death Battle was essentially breaking its own rules to give Lion-O an advantage in their fight. Needless to say, the actual battle made quick work of that little issue.

Pikachu and Blanka never once paralyzed each other, either through electrical discharge or through Pikachu's Static ability. The match was made before Gen VI, where Electric-type Pokemon became immune to paralysis.

When discussing Superman's strengths and weaknesses, it's stated that "even the buildings in Metropolis are more valuable to him than his own life". One of the main complaints of Man of Steel was the amount of damage to the city.

In the episode that pits Fox McCloud against Bucky O'Hare, Wiz describes the latter's nemeses of Toad Empire, "as amphibian Nazis... if Hitler was Skynet." The episode that comes after? The Terminator vs. Robocop.

Ivy vs. Orchid only a few days before Double Helix revealed a sneak peak that Orchid would be in Killer Instinct for Xbox One.

Mario vs. Sonic came before Short-Factor started animating. As a result, Luigi and Tails' fight is far more visually spectacular, though that was animated by someone else.

And now, it's become a running gag in the show itself, with Deadpool insulting the hosts about it in Deadpool vs. Deathstroke and Ben Singer, the voice of Wizard, getting visited by a living Goku toy in the ad break in Kirby vs. Majin Buu, in addition to this spin-off video.

One of the most common complaints about the Peach vs. Zelda fight was that Zelda never transformed into Sheik during the fight. Come Super Smash Bros. 4, nearly two years later, Sheik has been her own character slot instead of being part of Zelda's moveset, meaning that Zelda literally CAN'T turn into Sheik mid-fight. Of course, whether this is Hilarious in Hindsight or Harsher in Hindsight depends on whether you are fond of the announcement or not. However, this is mitigated somewhat due to the revelation that the 3DS hardware limitations is what caused this decision to be made, not as a result of wanting to diverge Zelda's character a bit.

Though "hilarious" might not be the right word for either episode, Blanka biting Pikachu's head off was later attempted by Charizard to Blastoise. Chariard's attempt failed, and loses his wings (and life) as a result.

On the day the May 16th death battle, which is Fulgore vs. Sektor happened, immediately after it, Godzilla was announced as the next fighter in the next death battle. This becomes even more amusing that not only did the death battle come out the same day as the Latest film, but in said film, Godzilla kills the bigger muto in a way that would fit right in Mortal Kombat itself.

After the fight between Batman and Spider-Man, Boomstick comments "And all of Wayne's money, and the commissioner's men, couldn't put Batman together again." As of this edit, Batman is the only Death Battle loser to come back for another match.

Around the same time the show started, The Spoony One made his own Deadliest Warrior-type show known as Deadliest Character, which was only one episode due to the fact that Death Battle was more popularnote Or, as Spoony tells it, because production on the one episode took a full year, and because it was only really meant as a one-off parody of Deadliest Warrior to start with.. The only episode was Mecha Godzilla vs. The Megazord with James Rolfe even helping with the Mecha Godzilla section. At SGC's Death Battle Panel and Godzilla vs. Gamera premiere, not only did they state that James Rolfe helped them with this fight, but one of the characters they previewed to be later in another fight was Tommy Oliver from Power Rangers, with his own Zord. Ironically, in the Deadliest Character, Mecha Godzilla lost to the Power Rangers; in Death Battle, Godzilla won his match while Tommy, piloting the Tigerzord and eventually the Mega Tigerzord, lost his.

One complaint from the Cloud Strife vs. Link Death Battle was how Link was able to throw several bombs at once, when previous incarnations have shown him capable of only using one at a time. Come Hyrule Warriors, now Link can spam his bombs well after Death Battle depicted him doing so!

During Magfest, the hosts outright stated that Naruto would be as a series that wouldn't be featured in Death Battle until it ended. Shortly afterwards, the Grand Finale to the series came out, and soon after that, Gaara vs. Toph was confirmed to be an episode in the making.

In Vegeta vs Shadow when Shadow goes Super Vegeta remarks "Wow. What a ripoff." In the Dragon Ball Z movie "Resurrection 'F'", Freiza returns with a new Super Mode that turns him gold. Prophetic no?

HSQ: Almost every episode has several potential moment for this, the most notable are:

Eggman vs. Wily, especially after Metal Sonic decimates both of them.

in-universe: Boomstick Lets out a big "OH SHIT!" after seeing Mjolnir's raw power in action.

The ending of the Goku Vs Superman fight is either this or a Tear Jerker. The planet explodes.

Some of He-Man's more impossible feats (such as burrowing to the center of Eternia with the point of a stalactite) get a "The fuck!?" and a "The double fuck!?" from Boomstick.

Bucky O'Hare getting his head blasted to pieces.

Blastoise ripping off Charizard's wings.

Godzilla Tanking Gamera's Mana Cannon. It is also said that Gamara getting his arm ripped off caused this reaction in a live audience.

The whole Captain America/Batman fight. Steve had a major upper hand for the entirety of the fight due to his superhuman abilities. He curb-stomps Batman for a while, not realizing that Batman is studying his opponent. Once Batman figures out the situation, he delivers quite possibly the swiftest beatdown Cap will ever receive before using his Batclaw to snap Captain America's neck!

Link using Z-Targetting to block Cloud's Omnislash then slashing him mid-air during the final move. Anyone watching that for the first can very easily miss what's going on there. It happens so incredibly fast which is canon to what both of them can do.

Deadpool vs. Deathstroke was a long requested battle, and the final product lives up to expectations. Two insanely talented assassins with a metric crapton of weaponry each, a mutual Healing Factor, and an entire city as their playground. It only gets better when the battlefield shifts to the roofs of cars in rush-hour traffic, and even more so after Deathstroke shoots out the tires of one of the buses, causing a wicked nasty traffic accident that both fighters utilize to their advantage, even while some of the cars are still flying through the air. The result is something that would fit in wonderfully as an action-movie climax.

Kirby inhales a blast powerful enough to annihilate planets without a scratch and shooting it back at Kid Buu, launching him into the sun for the kill.

Ragna, now the BlackBeast, and Sol, now using his limiter-freeDragonInstall, charging at each other for the climax of their fight. In an explosion that takes out the entire city they were fighting in, Sol one-shots the Black Beast, a world-destroying beast of destruction, and it's implied he was still holding himself back despite all that.

Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro escalated from showcasing their badassery on Earth, to the Earth getting cleaved in two alongside several planets, to Chuck Norris destroying the Sun, causing a massive black hole. The fight ends in the two colliding in the middle of it, destroying the space-time continuum in the process.

On the One Minute Melee side of things, we have the climax of Sakuya vs. Dio. Dio has had his arm cut off, and there's one second left on the timer. It's seemingly time for the finisher... but then both combatants activate their respective Time Stands Still moves, causing the fight to go on for a full minute longer. Dio beats Sakuya with his severed hand and then activates his infamous road roller super, but Sakuya escapes the explosion in a similar way to another time stopping opponent Dio has faced, and proceeds to finish him off with a barrage of knives. Even for One Minute Melee standards, that fight was intense.

Some viewers don't even care about the research or who wins. They just want to see two similar characters Duel to the Death.

This is also a big selling point of the One-Minute Melee spin-off; fast-paced action without studying the lore and stats of the characters themselves.

Now taken literally with the battle featuring the Big G himself.

In a more Meta way, the vast majority of traffic to ScrewAttack's Youtube page is for Death Battle. All non-Death Battle videos (the majority of ScrewAttack content) get bombarded with people posting suggestions for Battles, asking where the next episode is or DEMANDING the next episode, threatening to unsubscribe if it's not posted, etc.

Love It or Hate It: Any episode can be this, really. The Goku Vs Superman fight, depending on which side you were hoping would win. It's by far the most controversial fight in the series (most episodes manage well over 90% likes to dislikes, where Goku v Superman is currently sitting at barely 60%).

Wiz's proclamation of Gaara's sand being "just sand" and nothing out of the ordinary has spawned a large array of "X is just X" jokes on the Screwattack forums... mostly taking the piss out of the meme's origin.

Ditto for "Bending Options!" which has become a tongue-in-cheek response to anything a something-kinetic can do, regardless if it's true or not.

"Hoo boy, here comes the rage from the "X" fanboys!" said by Boomstick in Kratos vs. Spawn has since then become a widely used statement across both youtube comments and the Screwattack forums.

Memetic Badass: Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro pits two of the biggest ones in history against each other and the result is nothing short of spectacular.

Misplaced Nationalism: Thanks to the victory of Superman over Goku, many enraged Dragon Ball fans are accusing Wizard and Boomstick of having an American bias. Even though non-American characters/non-American created characters have defeated American/American created characters in previous battles. Boba Fett vs. Samus, Haggar vs Zangief, (possibly) Felicia vs. Taokaka, and Fox McCloud vs. Bucky O'Hare, for starters.

These accusations have also been made by Japanese viewers watching copies of that particular episode on Nico Nico Douga. In particular, one person mocked the victory with a "USA! USA!" comment.

Narm: Some of the voice acted episodes can come off as a bit awkward. Zechs in particular is quite nasal in his delivery of his lines.

Ditto Godzilla's... unique style of flight. He uses it to throw Gamera off balance a little while Gamera pushes him into orbit, uses it again to slow his decent into the water after escaping Gamera's Suplex Finisher, and helps determine the sheer force of the atomic breath, almost A Trillion tons of force.

Rewatch Bonus: During the rundown for Deadpool, Wiz mentions how Deadpool being diagnosed with cancer hits him like a flaming semi-truck to the face. This actually happens to him during his battle with Deathstroke.

Ron the Death Eater: Superman after Goku vs Superman. He's treated as a monster by some because his battle with Goku caused the Earth's destruction, ignoring the fact that Goku both instigated the fight and escalated it; Superman was minding his own business and tried to talk Goku out of fighting twice.

Rooting for the Empire: Lampshaded by Wiz and Boomstick during their liveshow at the convention they showed "Godzilla vs Gamera", where most of the viewers in the audience were rooting for Godzilla even though the fight clearly showed him in a villainous role where he was rampaging through a city.

The sprites of Fox McCloud were clearly not vectorized properly in Eric Marte's animation software, resulting in ugly streaks of grey either at the edges of his limbs and face, or surrounding the entire sprite. Thankfully, the choreography is just as strong as ever.

Some of the things on Robocop are occasionally Off Model. Parts of his model were highlighted poorly in some shots (like when he and Terminator are on the rooftop) and any level of proper lipsyncing was either cut for time or just ignored. His usually small and pointy finger also looks a little Uncanny Valley-esque and ridiculous as well. Still very well done fight overall.

During the Battle Amongst the Flames that occurs during the Pokemon Battle Royale, the wall of flame is clearly made out of separate pieces, causing unevenness in the heights of the fire. A good example can be seen right before Blastoise starts pumping water into Charizard's mouth.

Godzilla vs Gamera looks amazing. The water effects during the battle...not so much.

The final clash between Dante and Ragna in their One Minute Melee is underwhelming to say the least. Ragna teleports around a lot, and then Dante just... loses. The final attack isn't actually shown, leading it to appear as if Dante suffered a poorly-timed heart attack rather than Ragna finishing him off.

Bass' Super Mode is only used in a futile attempt to stop Metal Sonic from going One-Winged Angel, when he was the only Robot Master strong enough to take him on.

In Shadow vs. Vegeta.

Super Shadow spent most of his time teleporting Super Saiyan Vegeta around via Chaos Control, which ultimately led to his undoing.

Shadow never gets to use Chaos Blast, only a failed attempt at using it just before his energy runs out.

Paralysis is brought up when listing Pikachu's moves and abilities, but it never makes an appearance in the actual fight.

Zelda Vs. Peach: No Sheik mode for the former but they did explain that any abilities for Sheik would apply to Zelda as well due to Sheik being a disguise.

Luigi's Negative Zone had loads of potential, but its "unreliability" (of the eight possible effects, between zero and three effects are distributed at random) lead to none of the seriously debilitating effects making an appearance and affecting Tails; the random effects appeared to be "uncontrollable tripping" and "timeslow from the Stopwatch item", the former of which is negated entirely by jumping/flying, Tails' forte.

As Noted in Critical Research Failure, When Buu split up, it should have been Evil buu who appeared instead of Kid Buu, which would have resulted in Super Buu in the end, who is without a doubt the smartest of the buus.

During the rundown of Tommy Oliver's and the Tigerzord, it was determined that Tommy could call on the Zords of the other rangers (as they had done so before on the show) which he uses to form the MegaTigerzord. However, since he could call any of the other rangers' Zords, there was nothing stopping him from calling the Red Dragon Zord or the Tor Carrier Zord to form the ThunderUltrazord. Granted ... while Tor alone could tank a melee attack from Serpentara, the ThunderUltrazord was notoriously slow, and it's final attack (flying up and landing on the enemy) would have been near impossible to land on the very quick Epyon, so it likely would have made little to no difference anyway.

Throw the Dog a Bone: One-Minute Melee- Bowser Vs. Eggman is this to the Mario fanbase to some extent, being the first time on the show a Mario character beats a Sonic character, even if Mario characters, such as Yoshi, have won on the show before.

Unconventional Learning Experience: Not only do we get a generous handful of math, science, and history lessons throughout the series; but many viewers also gain an interest on the more obscure combatants and their series. oftentimes, the more obscure loser of the battle typically draws more interest by fans who go on to learn about them, Bucky O'Hare and Gamera being big examples.

Visual Effects of Awesome: Several of the Death Battles can apply, but of note is Thor vs. Raiden. Every coming battle will be this, due to their new animator, Jordan Lange, who started animating the series as of Zelda vs. Peach.

For a sprite battle not really based in 3D, Ryu vs. Scorpion looks awesome, including one moment about half-way through the battle that looks like it was hand drawn by both Capcom and Neatherrealm Studios just for this sort of occasion.

Deadpool vs. Deathstroke continues the trend of spectacular 3D battles. There's a lot going on at any given time, and it looks almost flawless throughout.

The remastered Boba Fett vs. Samus Aran fight is shaping up to be MADE of this.

And It delivers, being one of the best looking death battles at the point of making.

Luigi and Tails are probably the two most pitiable combatants in Death Battle to date. Luigi is in a perpetual state of fear and never has his accomplishments recognized, while Tails had his parents killed mere minutes after his birth. Putting the two of them in a fight to the death feels horribly wrong. In particular, Luigi's last scream is chilling, and there's a Wild Mass Guess that he's doing this out of grief-induced madness over his brother's death. Not only that, but Tails must now live with the fact that he had to kill a man at such a young age in order to survive.

Zechs Merquise could count as well after the events of Epyon vs Tigerzord. Ocular Gushers or not, it's still sad to see him pitifully sobbing over his dead girlfriend.

Guts has had more shit heaped on him than the previous three characters combined. He started out as a infant birthed from a corpse and things somehow went downhill for him from there.

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